Dining room by Riou

The Dining Room

 

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ere I depart from a part of the text.  Aronnax passes through double doors in the watertight bulkhead between the dining room and the library and his tally of the room lengths leaves no spare room.  As noted elsewhere in this site however, he places the library next to the stairway in both escape attempts and in other references in the second part of the novel.  I believe that Verne simply forgot the original arrangement by the time he wrote the later chapters (perhaps he misplaced his plan).  My placement of a vestibule between the rooms actually matches the movement of the characters around the boat well.

The lower stairwell pictured here is only for planning.  It is in the luxurious forward part of the Nautilus and will be appropriately appointed.  I plan finished walls, an ornate banister, and possibly an oriental rug runner.   
     I considered incorporating the vestibule into the dining room to reconcile the conflicting passages in the novel, but finally decided to keep the rectangular shape.  Since the vestibule is only a meter long, it has minimal effect on the boat layout and placing the lower staircase in the luxurious, forward part of the Nautilus justifies a more decorative design.

The vestibule between the library and the dining room.
The dining room, looking aft.

The professor tells us the dining room is five meters long and the same size as the library.  Like the library, I've made it five wide and four high.  I used the Riou woodcut above depicting an elegant, high-ceilinged dining room as inspiration for my realization.  The professor describes a luminous ceiling, as in the salon.  I added a chandelier, in a reference to the Ross Winans, which had two crystal lustres in its main saloon. 
     The arches over the two doors are inspired by the Mezquita in Cordoba. They're suggested in Aronnax'a cabin and more recognizable here.  

     When I first saw Gordana Kepert-Beaulieu's beautiful wall and floor textures I new I had the look for the dining room.  The only problem after that was finding complementary patterns for Riou's wall panels and other contents of the room.
     I've included an oriental rug, as in the rest of the forward section, and period furniture as described by Aronnax.  The large piece on the starboard side and the table and chairs needed only a little work to adapt to the scene.  I built the other sideboard from scratch using pictures of a Victorian antique.   The port side of the dining room, looking aft.
Toward the port side.
The sideboards and table now await Nemo's fine china.  I expect to use Ming dynasty patterns.

I had trouble matching the ceiling to the rest of the room until Gordana kindly created the pattern below that matches not only her floor and walls, but also the found pattern on the separate wall panels. 

Special tahnks to Gordana Kepert-Beaulieu for the luminescent ceiling.
Looking forward through the library to the salon. Credits:
The marble wall finish, the decorated floor tiles, and the ceiling panel are by Gordana Beaulieu (www.gordanadesign.com).  Other tiles are from tile vendors web sites, including Florida Tile.  The doors and the upholstery are from KTN 3D (solo23.abac.com/gotaborg/ktn3d).  The panels on the walls use a playing card back pattern. The rug is from 1001 Oriental Carpets.  The table is from 3Dcreator, but uses a different wood finish.  The lustre is based on Luis Filipe's from 3D Cafe.  The large sideboard is from VK at 3D Commune.  

More to come...

What do you think?  E-mail me

 

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  Revised 5 Apr 03
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